Chapter Text
Drabble 1, Unintended Consequences.
Sarah Vas’Trixia stood in Casey Summer’s office. Her hands clasped behind her back as they read off the list of infractions to her.
“...and finally we come to the end here” Casey sighed, and looked up at their counterpart. “Do you have ANY explanation for this madness Commander?”
Sarah considered her words carefully. “With all respect Sa’am, I believe it could have been worse, and I DID get some useable data before the experiment lost integrity”
“‘Lost integrity’ is a very interesting way of saying ‘exploded all over the lab’ Sarah” Casey rubbed the bridge of their nose.
“This is hardly the first report I’ve had cross my desk about experiments getting out of hand or lab injuries. Tell me, are you actually a scientist, or are you some sort of whimsical science gremlin?”
Sarah could barely keep the grin off her face. Whimsical Science Gremlin. Now that was a name she could learn to work with.
“Just…be more careful please” Sarah nodded and took her leave. Casey, meanwhile, couldn’t help but feel that they had given her some ideas that they could only hope didn't come back to bite them in the ass.
Drabble 2, The Doctor’s Gift
“Now, what have we learned Jason?” Dr. Kohl-To, blue to his friends, chided his patient, who frankly, should have known better.
Jason,, his organic arm dangling, rolled his eyes, and repeated like a child “be careful around open jeffries tube ports”
With Jason distracted, Koh-To gave a shove and with a loud pop, the shoulder slid back into place, accompanied by a very loud yelp from the engineer.
“Honestly Jason, you need to be more careful” the Skorr doctor said, running a medical tricorder over the limb, making sure that nothing else was damaged. Satisfied, he clicked he device shut and placed it back on the table. “What were you doing in thar access port anyways? You’ve got loads of engineers to do that work for you”
Jason shrugged. “I guess no matter how much authority I’ve got, I kinda miss being able to get my hands dirty. And if I get a little banged up, well, that's what you're here for Blue” He gave a sheepish grin.
“Well, as long as you don’t hurt yourself too much more” Kohl-To reassured Jason. “I don’t want to have to give you your own biobed”
Jason, for his part, grinned as he hopped off the bed, giving his arm a few stretches, using his robotic one as a brace “Feels good as new”
“Well, you’re good to go Chief” Kohl-To gave Jason one last once over as he turned to leave, waving as he did to. “See you later Doc”
“One last thing Jason!” Kohl-to called out, reaching into the pocket of his lab coat. “catch”
He tossed a lollypop to the chief, with as much of a grin as he could manage with a beak. “For being a good patient”
Drabble 3: The Seeds of Friendship
“Knock knock” Saissano walked into Commander Summer’s office, her XO, Casey was busing themselves with paperwork and reports
“What can I do for you captain” they looked up, glad for the brief distraction. Crew scheduling and assignments were a necessary, but exceedingly dull, part of the job.
"Just wanted to check in on my favorite XO is all" Sai looked over the sparsely decorated office. There were a few momentos like a family portrait, Casey's diploma from the academy and a soccer trophy, but little else.
"Also, I wanted to bring you a little something", she held up the planter she was carrying with a goofy grin. "Her names Doretta" Sai indicated the spider plant in the pot.
Casey blinked. This was…unexpected.
Saissano continued. "I was thinking how you could use a little color in here is all, and thought you might like this" she hefted the planter onto Casey's desk.
"You don't like my decorating skills" Casey said, a half grin on their face.
"It just seems a little, I don't know, dull in her is all"
"I suppose my office is a little…sparse" Casey admitted.
"But I like to travel light. My dad used to keep all his stuff with him, unfortunately he had a hull breach in his quarters, everything got spaced"
Sai nodded sympathetically, "so, nothing irreplaceable then?"
Casey smiled. "You got it, now anything I need to know about my new officemate here?"
Drabble 4: Swim Buddies
Sarah was relaxing in the water of the Vermont’s pool when her calm was immediately shattered by a dorsal fin cutting through the water.
“Gaaaa!” The immediate fight or flight response kicked in, before her brain caught up to her.
"Damnit Darwin, I thought you were a shark!" The exasperated scientist shouted
Darwin laughed, a unique mix of dolphin squeaks and his translator implant's voice. "In the lap pool?"
"I've heard of stranger things" Sarah shot back, struggling to not laugh
The spirited dolphin did a roll, coming up next to the Andorian. She reached over, giving him a friendly pat on the flank. "How's life on the bridge anyways?". Sarah asked, swapping to floating on her back
"Boring lately, sadly" Came the reply, muffled by the water lapping over her ears. "We're not going anywhere for a bit, so all Ive had to do is adjust the orbit every now and then"
"I thought you were doin' the shuttle flights?" Sara asked, turning to look at the dolphin.
"I am, but Commander Summers says I can't do anymore stunts. They say it's 'too risky' and 'unprofessional' and 'nausea inducing'" Darwin couldn't roll his eyes or do air quotes with his bionic hands on the bench, but Sarah practically heard them.
"You know it's only 'cause of the mission specialists, right Dar?" She gave her aquatic friend a jab at his shoulder. "They don't have the stomach for anythin' more"
Darwin sighed. "I know, still doesn't mean I have to like it though".
Sarah laughed, "course not, ya big *globta*, now c'mon, I need someone to keep me company while I do some laps"
Drabble 5: Therapy
(This one features discussion of PTSD and panic attacks)
"So, how was this past week Emily?" Dr. Cala looked over her notepad at her youngest patient.
"Better, I think" Emily nodded, giving Gus, the therapy dog, a scratch behind his ear. "I managed to make it almost the whole week without the dreams, but I'm still" she trailed off, not quite wanting to finish the sentence.
Yarrow knew what she meant though. "Emily, you went through something very traumatic. It's perfectly normal for physical symptoms to come up"
"But I'm 11 doctor, I shouldn't still have to deal with bed wetting!"
"Try to think of like this Emily" Dr Cala's tone was gentle but firm. "Night terrors and panic attacks are your body reacting to something that it sees as a threat. And part of the fight or flight response is…" She paused, and Emily nodded.
"I mean, I get that, but it's still embarrassing. And it means I don't really do sleep-overs"
"Emily, do you *really* think your friends would make fun of you for that?" Yarrow raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not worried about that." Emily shook her head
"I don't want them to feel…I don't know, like I'm fragile or something"
Yarrow considered. "Emily, you are one of the strongest patients I have. You not only survived a gorn raider attack, but to have come this far in recovery is, honestly, outstanding"
Emily gave a weak smile as Dr. Cala continued. "Being strong isn't about bit worrying about your trauma, but acknowledging that it is there, and not letting it define who you are as a person"
"I want you to picture a box, okay? In that box is a small button. That button is your trigger. Now, there's a ball bouncing around in that box. Over time, that ball is going to get smaller and smaller, but it will never go away".
"So, I'm going to have do deal with all this" Emily gestured broadly at everything "for the rest of my life? The panic attacks out of nowhere, the nightmares?"
Yarrow gave a reassuring smile. "It will get better with time, Emily. I promise". An idea popped into her head.
"Emily, what would you say to having an emotional support animal?"
Drabble 6: Team Building Exercises
“Do we really have to do it this way?” Casey groaned from the char they were sitting in.
Chee, his face dead serious, looked over the camera he was positioning. “You *did* ask me to help you set up posters for the team tryouts”
“I thought you were just going to put out some tryout sign up posters, bot have me as the face of the team” Casep protested
“And what better way to get people interested if they see Casey Summers, Team Captain, wanting them to join the team?” Chee punctuated by gesturing dramatically as he said the name and title.
“Trust me on this one XO, this *will* work. The crew loves you.” Chee turned to the side. “Isn’t that right Jason?” Chee’s husband nodded, and walked over, tossing a soccer ball around his hands. “There’s a fair number of enlisted who have a major crush on you Sa’am”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it” Chee stuck his tongue out at Jason, who laughed.
“You DO know you’re not supposed to touch it with your hands, right?” Casey teased, pointedly ignoring the revelation that a lot of the crew had *thoughts* about them.
“True, but as keeper…” Jason trailed off.
“Fair point, I suppose”
Jason walked over toward the centaur, leaning against his flank as he held his fingers up in a frame. “Too formal looking, what do you think Chee?”
Chee nodded. “Commander, could you please lean back a bit?” Casey did as they were asked.
“Oooh, and cross your legs”
The two repositioned Casey a few times, but something was missing. Casey’s eyes then fell on the discarded soccer ball.
“Chief, toss me that ball, would you” Jason nodded and tossed it to Casey, who deftly caught the ball, and gave it a spin, raising it on a finger “Eh?”
“Perfect” Chee dashed back and snapped a few quick pictures. “This is exactly what I was looking for”
…
Later that day, across the ship, posters featuring the wry grin of the ship's very popular XO began to appear with the caption “Join the Lake Monsters!”